A royal Death

Princess Antoinette of Monaco, Countess of Polignac, Baroness of Massy has died at the age of 90.  She was the older sister of the late Prince Ranier, aunt to the reigning Prince of Monaco.  The Palace reported Friday that the Princess passed away overnight at Princess Grace Hospital.  No cause of death was released, but one can expect at the age of 90 that it could be a great many things
She  was deeply involved in animal rights and was the president of Monaco's Society for the Protection of Animals.  She had been married three times throughout her life and had three children.  Her first marriage was to that of the father of her children (although they married after the three had been born) Alexandre Noghès.   That marriage ended in divorce after 3 years, but the relationship had lasted around 10 years total.  She was then married for 60 years to Dr. Jean-Charles Rey and it this union that led to much controversy in the Grimaldi family.  The duo had put together a plan to depose Prince Rainier and have herself declared Regent because she had a son who could inherit the throne.  In order to further the plan, they started rumors that the Prince’s girlfriend at the time was infertile.  Eventually, possibly because of the rumors, the Prince broke of that relationship and famously married American actress Grace Kelly.  One year after their marriage they had Princess Caroline, and a year later Prince Albert was born and the succession argument was thusly put to bed.  However, the damage had been done, Princess Grace had her removed from the Palace and the family was estranged for many years.  Princess Antoinette was lastly married to John Gilpin in 1983.  The union was cut short by his untimely death six weeks after their marriage.
HSH Prince Albert II, the Princess’ nephew, ordered all the flags in the principality to be at half-staff.  She is survived by two of her three children Elisabeth-Anne de Massy and Christian Louis de Massy.